Our Coffee @ Work Group

Amongst us, the letter 'A' rules as the initial letter of the names but 'S' rules when it comes to the surnames. We all are seven in number.. Going in chronological order (so as to not upset anyone for the order of their names) , we are - Aditi B, Aditi S, Aki, Amey, Ashish , Srijita and Raxy. Ashish RK is a variable factor, who sometimes spares his time and joins us.

All of us are very unique.We are one of our own kind. let me introduce to each one of us in detail..

Aditi B..

The name is only enough.See now I am writing about her and she pinged. There are 3 main reasons for her ping..Coffee, passcode and others :) Overall she is a very good natured girl. She can't even keep quite without moving her hands/fingers .. Now you can imagine how interesting is to look at her hand while she speaks. Her art skills are very good and luckily she gets to practise it on her white board. We all give her a good time to find changes we make to her art :) She likes to change her desktop everyday so if you got good photos, having potential to be selected by her, do forward her!! Also, she was doing great on Cafe World until she retired ;)

Aditi S

The only unfortunate person to be seated alone on the second floor of the office.. No definitely her team is also there but none from our group. She initially tried to call us all there but when she realised the heights of our laziness, she gave up. Now she only comes to the third floor - our floor. Although she looks very docile and peaceful girl at the outset but Amey can tell you the other side(beating side) of this goodieee... He is the one who is the major hit. Even if someone else takes her case, it is Amey who gets the punch :D She is really a good cook.. I have tasted her toothsome paneer dish. She has a very decorative and creative mind. We made a cycle using the straws!!

Aki

This is what he likes his name as.. Actually his name is Akhil. Very easy to spot.. someone who is always on phone (whether talking or not), wearing jacket and short hair. Comes to work when our half day is over and I never stayed back to see when he leaves. According to others if once also he goes back home before midnight, it is a miracle. He has got a lot of affection towards black colour and hot chocolate. He has potential of being a good screen saver designer. Someone who is seldom "not speaking" on phone is Akhil.

Amey

Here comes the thinnest person.Even raxy seems healthier than him now days. Too overloaded with work. His messenger will be full of marathi words.. so difficult it makes to sneak on him. His cellphone contains all possible actress's wallpapers and all possible love songs. Very hardworking- everyone describes him like that except us. We all don't allow him to work when we go and have coffee at his desk. Genelia's big fan is always working!!! But not for her.. for the company.. I donno how is he going to make it!!

Sahu

Hmm.. this is the reply you get 5 out of 10 times on the messenger from him. Not known to all but he is a very religious fellow. He joined all the possible classes in Infy except salsa I think.. but regularly went for none.. Music- all instruments he has covered..Yoga, meditation... Dig into his bag and you will find all types of churan goliyan- in all sizes and shapes which he claims to be his medicines. He has a different angle of taking things and it is nice and hilarious when you are in his company.

Raxy

Here comes the dude.. Last but not the least at all. You will have to concentrate hard and be fully attentive to listen to him. The reason being, during the coffee sessions, he speaks; but the frequency is very low. If you are not tuned and alert, you may miss the golden words :) 76 is the number on his cap.. and you can recognise him by that. Tall and slim and a good dancer are his other attributes. He is also a busy bee. Many a times while having coffee someone or the other realises that he has gone missing.. he will quietly satkaoto do his work.. From now on we will keep a track of him. It is fun to see his hair style.. we have a good time giggling about it..

So this is a small introduction of my coffee group... We are all fun loving and easy going people. You can find us lurking aroung the coffee machines or Amey's or Aditi's desk :)

Use of Emoctions!!

No one who uses a chatting software can avoid using emoctions or more familiarly called "smileys". Very serious people or the highly business chats are excluded from the claim :)

Mostly used smileys are the ones with a smile, broader smile.. winking smiley, the smiley with the protruding tongue (my favourite), sad smiley, crying smiley and the list goes on... Usually they occupy the first 3 rows in the messenger... Others which are less frequently used are the raining, umbrella, good luck and "working on it".. They also are justified to be there on the list as one can think of times to use them...

But, what about a black sheep..island on the palm tree?? May be they are used to symbolise the day dreaming while working.. as they are on my work messenger!!

The smileys have become an inseparable part of our text lingo that even when we are writing scraps ( on orkut) or mails to each other.. we tend to use them. If that particular software does not supports a smiley, we end up using things which look like :) or ;) or :(

Smileys have lots of advantages. The most important from the perspective of ladies is - beautification.. Shocked?? Why?? Don't you know smileys make you smile and smile does some good effect on the facial muscles and enhance(maintain) beauty. But this should be handled with lots of care as there are irritating smileys also which make you frown!! But yes there are remedial "stay young" creams available so not much to worry..
The second most important use of smileys is .. as you might have guessed it.. giving one's finger some rest.. They are awesome shortcuts. So much typing can be saved by the mouse clicks!!

Apart from the effective communication, these is one more major advantage which are very evident and can be acknowledged by everyone who is a working professional.. For that, imagine a situation.. You are working in your office. As per the norms, chatting is strictly prohibited (as it is many offices). But you have downloaded some or the other chatting software and one fine day are busy reading crispy messages (including several and humorous smileys) from an old pal. Suddenly your boss turns up. He looks at you - doing work..typing a lot ...but smiling!! He wonders what amusement you are deriving outta work... he walks past you with the notion that WOW.. there is at least somebody who is enjoying work!!

What a good image you earned ..So my friends.. keep using smileys.. you also smile and increase your friend's facial beauty and reduce their blood pressure also.. But yes, please let me know the other instances when you have used the smileys in the last rows of the messenger.. I would love to know them and hence the reason of their existence ..

Signing off with a smiley :):) Enjoy!!!!

The ride on the Shikara was liitle more amusing as compared to the normal boat ride. The reason being the very thought that the Jheel on which we were, remained in liquid form for half the year only. The next half, you can walk on it!! All becomes ice.





The early morning view was very nice. The water was very fresh ( coming directly from the mountains above) including several beatiful waterfalls. On both the sides, the mountain peaks stood lush green and in between the water was still. Then as we headed slowly, the serenity of the place touched my heart. I could feel the cold breeze. I could listen to the water when the boat was moving.





Before I could realise, my boat was surrounded with many other boats. Those other boats contained all sorts of things- to sell. Welcome to the market!! Vegetable laiden boats were followed by the traditional items boats containing all sorts of woolen clothes, shawls and caps. After these small boats, came the bigger boats. Those were not moving but were static at one place over the water.They were supported by bamboos which were coming from inside the water. They looked like proper shops if you forget that their is water underneath. The big boats had the "parking" area for the tourist Shikaras. Once they parked it, you can go inside and shop for whatever you want.





Traditional jewellery and dry fruits like cashew are among some other things which attracted many people. Owing to the present politcal conditions, the tourism has dropped to the minimum levels. But the warmth with which they welcomed those few people was also remarkable.





After taking few dress material beautifully made from the Kashmiri embroidery, I boarded the Shikara again and said good bye to the shopkeepers. As the Shikara proceeded smoothly, I saw the next amazing thing.. the fields on the water. Many farmers mainly women came on their boats and were doing farming!! I was shocked. The balancing of their boats while they harvested their fully growm watermelons,paddy crops or cucumbers was worth noticing. There were many other fruits and vegetables grown majorily those which require bountiful water. Lotuses were here there and everywhere adding to the beauty of the place.





It already became dark and the sunset time comes very soon. Along with the evening came mist,fog and chilly breeze. The visibility became poorer but still the beauty increased. Now the Shikara was approaching the houses on river!! Yes, the boat houses!!

All size and sorts of boat hoses were there. I had naver heard before of the double storey boat houses which were beatifully floating infront of me. The material used was mainly wood to keep it as light as possible. Some boats even looked like they were made up of white marble with beautiful sculputers done. For once they represented Agra's Taj on river!! i went in one house boat to look around. The interior of the boats was really amazing!! The careful designing of the boat can only make a bedroom, hall and a kitchen possible in an otherwise small looking boat from outside. Once I went inside, I forgot that I was on a boat. I liked that boat and decided to stay for a day. In the morning, when I got up and stepped out of my room, the view was so different from any other morning. Usually we dont even have time to look and appreciate the nature. But here it was.. I saw the sun rise amongst many other house boats infront of me and water below!!!! Not a lovlier morning view I can have.

Full day I spent time there, roamed in the gardens which they had mentained on the boats, having meals and admiring swans in the lake alsong with some more Shikaras. It was already evening and I looked at the house boats one last time until I come to this place again.

The lights on the boats were lit up as the previous night. Shrinking sizes of the boats and dimming of the lights were telling as I was moving away from them towards the shore.Now the lights were visible not only above but below the water also.I closed my eyes to imprint the view in my memories forever. I wish to see that again.. It is still fresh in my mind..

"Kashmir is the heaven on the Earth"

I have grown up hearing this. Finally, two years back, I got the privilege to acknowledge the fact myself.

It was like dream come true when I saw the ice-laiden mountain tops. The sight was amazing! This was Sonemarg, a beautiful place for site seeing near SriNagar.




The next day, I saw the very famous Nishat Garden. The Garden is covered with beautiful and lush green grass. The flowers are as fresh as ever with the dew drops on them at all the time due to the fog and the mist in the climate over there.


Then I took the Shikara. "Shikara" is the ferry which is the main mode of transport there. One can take a full round of the city and the markets on this boat. The one and only lake dal popularly called "Dal Jheel" is the way.